A Spoonful of Sugar

I mixed together 500g granary flour with 1.5 tsp of sea salt and then zapped 325 mL of mineral water in the microwave (I'm not being pretentious, honestly! Our tap water tastes really metallic so I don't bake with it if I can help it) for 1 minute until tepid. Roughly 100 mL of water then got chucked into a bowl and 2 tsp of dried yeast sprinkled over and left for 5 minutes to dissolve. Once it was dissolved I gave it a quick stir with a wooden spoon and then carefully poured it into the well within the flour/salt mixture. Being very careful not to break the sides of the well, I pulled flour in until I had a soft paste. On reflection, the paste was probably too soft, but since the dough rose later on, it can't have been catastrophic! I'm not entirely sure why the sponge method is used. Since its left for 20 minutes, it can't develop much additional flavour, can it?

Once I had my slightly-too-soft paste, I covered the bowl with a tea towel and left it for 20 minutes to do its thing. When I came back I had trouble deciding whether to leave it some more or whether to continue. After a few minutes of indecision, I decided to just go on and so I mixed up the dough with the reserved water (admittedly, I did zap it again as the water was by now stone cold).

My first impression was that granary flour uses less water than standard flour. My second impression was that the malted wheat grains in it are quite pointy and sharp when kneading. Hopefully the finished product will make up for all the poking I've endured! Despite my reservations about my kneading skills, the dough did seem to be smooth and elastic in the end (after about 15 minutes work), so I washed the bowl out in scalding hot water, oiled it slightly (Eric and Ursula didn't mention this, but I'd rather be safe than sorry) and popped the dough in. I decided that as it was a rather chilly day, that I'd cover the bowl in cling film as well as a tea towel. After some further thought, I also put the oven on. This is undoubtably a Crime Against Bread, but my kitchen was really cold!!

Happily the Bread Police were not in evidence when I returned to knock back the dough. After a swift punch to the dough I turned it out and left it (covered by the upturned bowl) to rest for 10 minutes. Once rested, I then carefully followed the shaping instructions that Eric and Ursula had provided. I must say - the instructions are very thorough and very easy to follow! I feel hopeful that I'll actually produce nicely shaped loaves when I follow these instructions. Maybe they'll even become second nature in a few years time! The shaped dough went into a 500g loaf tin (at least, I think it was a 500g tin - I wish manufacturers would stamp the sizes on the tins) and I left it by the oven to prove.

Once the dough was 1cm above the top of the tin, I brushed some water over the top and popped it into the oven, giving it 20 minutes at 220C and then 15 minutes at 200C.

The bread came out wonderfully glossy and even achieved some oven spring. The only downside was that the crust seemed to be "flying" somewhat. Apparently this is caused by either not enough kneading or not proving for long enough. Tastewise, it was pretty good. Very dense in texture and strongly flavoured. I think next time, I would perhaps cut the granary flour with some plain white to try and get it a bit lighter and springier.

Now.... onto the chutney!